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Mancuso Eighth in Demanding Super G

by

USSA

2014-02-15 05:22

Julia Mancuso posted the best American finish in eighth at a rough and unforgiving super G Saturday, the final women’s speed event of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games. (Getty Images/Agence Zoom/Alain Grosclaude)

ROSA KHUTOR, Russia (Feb. 15) – Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) led Team USA once again Saturday, posting the best American finish in eighth at a rough and unforgiving super G, the final women’s speed event of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games. Another difficult course set plus temperatures in the 40s yielded DNFs in seven of the first eight racers, but Austrian Anna Fenninger dialed it in for gold on the inconsistent course. The event will be featured on NBC’s primetime Olympic coverage Saturday at 8:00 p.m. EST and can be streamed in its entirety on NBCOlympics.com. The men try their luck at super G Sunday, the final alpine speed event of the 2014 Sochi Games.

HIGHLIGHTS

Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) posted the best American finish in eighth at a rough and unforgiving super G Saturday, the final women’s speed event of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games. The Olympic veteran has led the U.S. women in all alpine speed events at the Rosa Khutor mountain venue as well as earned bronze in the super combined.

A difficult course set by Austrian Florian Winkler plus temperatures in the 40s yielded soft, rutted snow and DNFs in seven of the first eight racers, including Laurenne Ross (Bend, OR).

Leanne Smith (North Conway, NH) was the first racer to make it down the course cleanly, but finished 18th after the rest of the field adjusted to the rapidly changing snow conditions.

Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) ran 29th but was bounced by the uneven snow and crashed. Fortunately she emerged uninjured in her final race of the 2014 Sochi Games.

The event will be featured on NBC’s primetime Olympic coverage Saturday at 8:00 p.m. EST and can be streamed in its entirety on NBCOlympics.com.

The men try their luck at super G Sunday, the final alpine speed event of the 2014 Sochi Games.

QUOTESJulia MancusoThe course is very difficult as you can see, as well as the changing conditions. For my run, I think I watched too many people have bad runs and it got to me. The hardest thing for me to overcome - even though I am feeling good on my skis and got that first medal which was magical - I lack a little bit of confidence from not having good results in the start of the season.

Having too much information gets in your head. You start to set up two gates before the actual gate.

The snow at the top is hard and compact. It's soft all the way down and the last bit is getting baked and there is barely anything there.

Leanne SmithI’m happy with how I skied in the top section through the flat. I was attacking and in a good position. I knew exactly where I wanted to go, but with the speed and the heat coming into that break-over down here you get pushed really hard. Then everyone just makes the adjustments after you.

On being in first place for a whileI knew it wasn't going to last long. All you have to do is problem solve and watch me go down and make my mistakes and be the guinea pig. It's how these later girls make the adjustment. The perfect start number is probably five or six. An eight to 15 draw is great typically because you want the course report.

Laurenne RossIt was tough out there today, for sure. It was definitely a battle. It’s a really difficult hill and a really difficult set, so it was a big challenge for everybody. I think especially running at the beginning of the race is really hard when it’s a race like that. So I came out there and gave it everything I had and stuff happens when you’re going for it. So, I don’t have any regrets.